We're Ba-ack!

Home sweet home! Boy it's great to see the kids! I woke up with one husband and three kids in my bed. It was nice to get up this morning and take care of the kids. We were always waited on hand and foot while we were in the hotel.

There is so much to tell about our trip. I really don't know where to begin. I'll be able to post pictures on my next post. They are all saved on my work computer which is not currently online.

I guess I'll start at the beginning and post a little at a time. God worked things out for us on our trip over. Todd and I were able to sit together on each flight. We made all of our connections. Our malaria pills did not make us sick. My asthma wasn't great, but resting for hours on end on the planes really did help. Rest is the best thing for me when I'm not breathing well.

We were able to go into London for a very short while. It was fun though! We didn't feel confident that we had enough time to tour around and see any major sites, so we just took the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station and walked around town. We got a few pictures and sent the kids a post card. The dollar is very weak right now, so London was very expensive for us. It's not the best time financially to visit Europe!

We flew from Tampa to Chicago, Chicago to London, London to Nairobi, and Nairobi to Entebbe. Once we finally got to Entebbe we discovered we were short 3 out of 4 bags. I stood in line with about 20-30 Ugandans reporting our lost bags. As it turns out, the plane from Nairobi to Entebbe was very full. Not everyone's luggage could fit on the plane. There was another plane coming over a few hours later, so why not put some of the luggage on that plane? It's all going to the same place, right? So, a few hours later our bags arrived.

Pastor Ken and Pastor Chris (a Ugandan pastor in Kampala) were late picking us up. Since I spent so much time in line reporting our lost bags, we didn't actually wait outside too long. All of the Ugandan cab drivers were very helpful. We had at least 5 different drivers offer to call Pastor Ken for us. Uganda is a very friendly country! We saw several monkeys at the airport. That was very cool.

Our first 4 days were spent in Kampala. As I posted before, the air quality is very poor. It was extremely difficult for me to breathe well. I'm curious as to whether or not I would have done much better if I had not already been sick.

We loved Pastor Chris and his wife Pastor Agnes. Yes, Pastor Agnes. They were both wonderful! I'll post pictures of their church service later. The praise team/choir was incredible! The worship leader, Winnie (yes, another woman leader) did an amazing job. Worshipping in Uganda is so free and natural. The masks that we tend to wear at church do not exist in Uganda. No one tries to appear like "everything is fine." There is an unashamed dependency on the Lord that we don't often have here in the states. It's just something I hope each of you can experience for yourself someday.

We met Karen and Sandy Baird from Manna worldwide. Karen spoke along with me and Renate at the Women's Conference. Manna sponsers feeding centers all around the world. One of the newest feeding centers is Pastor Chris's orphanage in Kampala. I'll save a post for the orphanage. It was really amazing! We enjoyed Karen and Sandy. They will be coming to FishHawk in October for our missions celebration. I hope all of you FishHawk people will make it a point ot meet them!

Well, that's enough for now. I will post more later with pictures.